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Save Our Community was founded in the movement to resist Wal-Mart's development in Rosemead, California. Now, it has become a general site for news, information, gossip, talk, and blogging about Rosemead. We also have stories about South San Gabriel, San Gabriel, Montebello, and occasionally about Pico Rivera, El Monte, South El Monte, Alhambra, Temple City, and other nearby communities. Your host is Todd. If you want a blog just sign up, get approved, and start writing. Good posts will be moved onto the home page.

Here’s the link to the article in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune concerning the decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to grant an en banc hearing to Padilla v. Lever. As you know, this was the case cited by Jay Imperial when he sued the city of Rosemead in a desperate attempt to avoid having to face the voters in a recall election. Nearly 4,200 registered voters in the city signed petitions asking for that election.

Judge Klausner, the judge in Imperial’s lawsuit, decided to apply that decision retroactively to Rosemead. However, with the petition for en banc hearing granted, district courts in the Ninth Circuit can no longer cite Padilla v. Lever as precedent. With that, the rationale for retroactive application of a change in interpretation of the Voting Rights Act becomes very difficult to justify. Klausner will probably lift his preliminary restraining order and allow our election to go forward.

Obviously, we’d like this election to be held as soon as possible. Ideally, I think many of us would like to have our recall election consolidated with the June primary.

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Dumbest comment in the SGV Tribune article? This one: "Imperial expected the Padilla v. Lever decision to go to an en banc panel, according to his spokesman Steven Ly."

So let me get this straight: Imperial knew when he sued his own city that the case he was citing to derail the recall election was going to be subjected to en banc review? And Imperial knew that, as soon as that happened, his case for avoiding the judgement of the voters of Rosemead would evaporate? But he went ahead and spent thousands of dollars of his own money, and cost the city over $100,000, all just to enjoy a few more months in office?

I suppose I can believe all of this. But it makes Imperial look either stupid or desperate or both. It makes him look like a candidate that will go to any length, say anything, spend any amount of money, force the city to spend more money to litigate his case than holding the election would have cost, and do all of this simply to advance his own self-interest at the expense of the public good.

Well, yes, I can believe all of this. And that is why Jay Imperial deserves to be recalled.

You know, when Judge Klausner first issued his preliminary injunction against our February 7 recall election, a lot of us were appalled. But, in retrospect, his decision was better than we thought. By issuing only a preliminary injunction rather than a final ruling, he retained jurisidiction of the case. A reversal of his order can be made directly by him. By contrast, had he made a final ruling, we'd have had to appeal to the Ninth Circuit for a reversal. That would have taken a lot longer than just going straight back to Judge Klausner.

So, presuming the city of Rosemead fulfills its legal responsibilities and asks Judge Klausner to lift his restraining order, it's possible we could be on track for a reinstated recall election within a matter of months, and perhaps even within a matter of weeks.

For what ever reason, Judge Klausner has still not lifted his preliminary injunction against our recall election. Hard to understand why. In the absence of good case law to cite as precedent for imposing a retroactive multilingual requirement on our recall petitions, the decision seems pretty easy. So I guess it's just the old saying about the wheels of justice moving slowly. . . .